Departure from Dallas: 1.5 hour delay
Departure from Boston: nearly missed the plane!
Arrival in Paris: on time
The trip over provided me with two interesting seat mates. Normally, I don't want to talk to anyone on the plane. I pop in my headphones, and even if my iPod isn't on, it's a clear sign I don't want to be bothered. I mean, if you start up a conversation with someone before the plane even takes off, chances are you're not going to have much time to sleep.
The hour and a half on the runway at DFW went quickly when my neighbor learned that I speak French. Alors, on pourrait se parler en français? he asked, with an accent I couldn't quite place my finger on. Turns out, he's from Mexico - Guadalajara to be exact, but was awarded a scholarship to study les Beaux Arts in Paris over 40 years ago. He claims he hasn't spoken French in years, but his conversation skills were impressive. From time to time, he got languages mixed up, adding "you know" in English, numbers in German, certain words in Spanish and who knows what else in Italian. This man, an architect in Boston, speaks five languages. Five. Fluently. We should all be so skilled.
Because of the delay, I nearly missed my flight from Boston to Paris. There were several people on my flight, and they held our plane for us. Needless to say, I was relieved. Again, I was treated to a lovely seatmate, this time, a professor at a Dallas-area community college. We hit it off so well that we ended up helping each other with bags at the airport and taking the same shuttle into Paris. After our hours of conversation, she said, "You've changed my image of people from Oklahoma." I could say the same for women from Dallas!
For the first time in all these years, I took the Roissy bus - a 8,90€ shuttle that drops you off in the heart of Paris, just behind the Opéra Garnier. A walk around the corner and on to the city
bus #95, and I was on my way to Kathy & Damien's. Getting on the bus was somewhat of a challenge - once again, I've overpacked (my only consolation is that the bags should get lighter as I pass out the gifts I've brought), and when I muttered to myself en français about how I wasn't sure I was going to be able to manage, the shuttle driver said, "Perhaps you shouldn't pack so many things." Well, duh! And in the end, I managed quite well. The suitcase is about 1lb lighter as I gave Kathy her microwave popcorn and baby Charles his sock monkey. Every American kid needs a sock monkey, even those living in Paris.
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